Hitfilm University (2k subs! , Updated Oct 31, 2017)

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Ok, both Hitfilm 4 and 2017 added useful features for you. 4, in particular, because that's when they added motion graph (Bezier keys) and auto-align. Without beziers, you can't really control your rigs finely enough, and auto align makes a lot of stuff easier.

@Palacono looks like to add "chapter marks" to YouTube one has to build an annotation for each one, then set the annotation to be a clickable link. For this week's video I won't bother, but, in future tutorials I'll do the whole "Today we're gonna discuss A, B, C, D..." and have the annotations come up during the intro sequence.

Honestly, I added the "Chapter times" to the description for myself--inevitably I'll bee referring people to this tutorial, so I'll want to know which section.

@Andersen01498 To start QuickTime Win is dead and since HitFilm's QuickTime import ability still relies on QuickTime any export ability likely would as well. HitFilm, like everything else on Windows, seems to be moving away from relying on QuickTime at all. Second, there's not enough of a difference to shake a stick at. Export an MP4 and after it's done change the file extension to MOV and you're good to go.

@Anderson01498 Hitfilm used to call the MP4 export option, H.264. People asked about MP4 export and FxHome decided to rename it to MP4 since probably more ask about MP4 than H.264.

H.264 = AVC. Most times when you have an MP4 file is contains AVC video. On the NET MP4 and AVC/H.264 seem to be used interchangeably when talking about a video file. Even though not strictly correct that phrasing works fine most times.

As for MOV, you have to ask yourself why do you want MOV file when an MP4 is just as good. Hitfilm outputs AVC MP4 files. Technically MOV/MP4 are nearly identical.

@Anderson01498 I think something might be getting lost in translation. HitFilm's MP4 export is H.264. The biggest single difference between a HitFIlm MP4 export and a QuickTime H.264 MOV is literally the file extension.

MOV is the QuickTime container format. As a container format it can contain a wide variety of audio and video streams. MP4 is also a container format that is based on the MOV container format. Technically the exact chain is MOV which was used as the basis for the ISO Base Media File Format and MP4 is a registered extension of the ISO BMFF. The end result of that confusing mess is the MP4 container is 99.9% + identical to the MOV container. If you absolutely must have a QuickTime MOV all you need to do is change the extension from MP4 to MOV and you're done.

@Aladdin4d You can have transparency in .MOV files. I've got several suites of motion graphic popping circles, spinning things etc. with transparent backgrounds. Can you have that in .MP4? If so: yes please.

@Palacono Um, yes and no. The only difference between Quicktime h.264 and mp4 h.264 is the file extension (and the fact that naming it ".MOV" means the QT engine does the decode).

Again, you're confusing the CONTAINER with the CODEC. For comparison, let us look at the humble .zip file. A .zip file is a container... The only thing .zip itself supports it the types of compression used to shrink it down. However, a .zip file can contain any file you want to stick in it, be it text, graphics, video, spreadsheet, 3D models, etc.

h.264 is a COmpressor DECompressor for digital video. It's varied Profiles and Levels support differing bit-depths, resolutions, frame rates and compression settings, but h.264 was designed as (basically) the file format to hold Blu-Ray video. (or digital TV broadcast). Camera manufacturers picked up on it as a way to cram video files onto small SD cards, but h.264 wasn't designed as a capture or editing format--it's designed to cram RGB video into a small space and look reasonably good.

h.264 just doesn't support alpha channels, no matter what. It's just not in the specs.

Quicktime containers can hold many different codecs, including uncompressed, "Animation," MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (h.264), M-JPEG, h.264, Cinepack, Sorenson, Indeo, ClearVideo, ProRes and several others. But of all the codecs Quicktime supports, ONLY Uncompressed and Animation support alpha channels.

MP4 FILES are a container, similar to that of Quicktime, however, MP4 files ONLY support MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video codecs.

@Triem23 Oh, I know there are different Codecs in there, I was just responding to Aladdin4d's assertion that: "The biggest single difference between a HitFIlm MP4 export and a QuickTime H.264 MOV is literally the file extension. " and wondered if any of the other things you can stuff into the .MP4 container could also include a codec that had an Alpha channel, but...no. OK.

Same (but totally different...) thing with .M4A audio files. Some players won't play them, but often just renaming those same files to .MP3 and voila: no problem.

@Palacono To add to what Triem23 already said the differences aren't technical. From a technical standpoint they are virtually identical. The differences are in the specifications for what's allowed for a given Standard and licensing.

MP4 creation and usage is subject to MPEG-LA licensing and must follow the specifications in the ISO/MPEG-4 standard..

MOV creation and usage is subject to Apple licensing and yes it does technically require a license from Apple. I have an old post around somewhere with a link to Apple documentation that says "call us if you want to use it in your app". As part of the deal in using MOV as the basis for the ISO BMFF Apple retained all rights for MOV as a separate container with its own specifications and abilities.

You could technically use any combination of codec(s) and abilities available for an MOV in an MP4 as they are pretty much technically identical containers however doing so is completely out of spec and possibly illegal.

Huh--sitting down tonight to work on script for the next tutorial, I've discovered I am "ahead of schedule." In my master "curriculum" list I had "Import/Export Media" and "Working with Presets" as two different tutorials, with "Presets" scheduled for the tutorial after this week.